| Risk of contamination or safety concerns |
“Dr X, you keep deflecting on the risk of pre-symptomatic transmission. But viral loads are shown to be similar between symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers. Now, more recent studies are saying these ‘silent spreaders’ may actually be the MAIN driver of transmission. Why are you minimizing this?” March 18, 2020 (51) “There is recent evidence that shows injury to the placenta in pregnant women with COVID-19. Royal College of Obstetricians strongly recommends pregnant HCW[s] (>28 weeks) avoid direct patient care. With asymptomatic spread and outbreaks on ‘clean floors,’ why is UHN keeping pregnant HCWs at work?” May 28, 2020 (182) “The number of staff with positive tests since January in the corporate intranet is reported at 130. This number was 128 two weeks ago, before the TWH outbreaks and multiple cases that I am aware of at TGH—why are you not accurately reporting staff positivity rate? It is much higher than 1.8%.” October 20, 2020 (69)
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| Being valued by the institution |
“Morale is decreasing in high exposure areas. We feel devalued, unprepared and disposable to the organization. We don’t feel protected and as if our experience and opinions don’t matter. What incentives will you offer to ensure staff retention since you’re not willing to offer pay incentives?” April 14, 2020 (83) “Will UHN please consider paid time off for those staff not receiving pandemic pay [financial bonus to frontline, essential workers] or working from home? I am referring to essential full-time staff who have been coming to work every day and not receiving either of those perks.” May 28, 2020 (174) “Is there anything being done for people working onsite at the peak of the pandemic, but were not eligible for Pandemic Pay? What about people that have no choice but to take the already packed TTC buses and trains? We feel undervalued—as an Admin I received no help whatsoever.” October 14, 2020 (74)
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| Stratifications between roles or positions (us vs them) |
“Staff in different departments are given respite days (PAID days off) due to lower workload in certain areas. Other staff (even in the same dept) do not get respite days because they HAVE TO work the front line. Will these frontline staff get any similar compensation after this pandemic is over?” April 21, 2020 (119) “My direct manager does a great job. But agree with the thought exchange comment: executive team seems out of touch with frontline staff. Why only 1 quest on the [engagement] survey about executive team? Why did the final quest only ask what did UHN do well? AND not about opportunities for improvement?” June 23, 2020 (120) “Some of the comments on this forum during the past few months of COVID have demonstrated a sharper than ever divide between clinical and non-clinical folks. There seems to be a lack of understanding and appreciation for each other. Going forward, how will UHN leadership help to bridge this gap?” July 21, 2020 (151)
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| Demand for transparency or clarification |
“Why are acute care staff training HCWs to support patients in acute care only for our managers to redeploy experienced acute care staff elsewhere? There’s a lack of transparency that is causing confusion, fear, disengagement and safety concerns in acute care. Higher oversight is needed.” April 23, 2020 (210) “I am still struggling to understand the moral argument that UHN will not release the report on TWH outbreaks, just recommendations, because ‘we are afraid of getting sued.’ Is that even valid? It is disrespectful to the staff who were infected to withhold the full report. We want real transparency.” June 3, 2020 (123) “Dr X, thank you for explicitly clarifying the universal masking policy for patients (at all times outside of room). But again, this issue was raised months ago in a previous open forum. Why the delay/hesitation? Why was the change made only now? Did this factor into our recent outbreaks?” November 3, 2020 (101)
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| Explicit issues of mental distress or morale issues |
“What is UHN doing to support the mental health of its staff beyond recommending EAP and a self-meditation tutorial? Many staff will likely require help beyond what can be offered via the EAP program, and our benefits (if we have them) poorly address mental health or provide adequate funds for them.” March 31, 2020 (67) “The mental health of our staff is deteriorating as a result of being redeployed out of their sites, positions, work hours and days. It was okay for a short time but now that the months drag on this is no longer a reasonable ask. Outpatient clients have lost so much therapy (virtual is not the same).” June 16, 2020 (70) “Leadership seems disconnected with frontline staff. To suggest last forum that people have been happy with redeployment on the basis of a couple of anecdotes examples ignores and dismisses the numerous questions & many hundreds of upvotes in all previous forums. Most are not happy with redeployment.” June 23, 2020 (240)
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| Lack of resources or capacity in clinical environment |
“Frontline workload—any initiatives for strategies in place to reduce the number of times staff need to go into isolated rooms and preserve our PPE? Can we tap into the TeleMonitor Team expertise to increase remote observation to help front line nursing workload by decreasing unnecessary exposure?” April 16, 2020 (212) “Thinking about ramping up capacity back to ‘normal’ is making me anxious, are you able to share what the plan is?” April 30, 2020 (103) “Many employees that have been working from home these past 10 weeks with less than full workload. Can they be asked to come and help screen? Can they relieve those of us who are doing their own role + being redeployed? We are burning out while others sit safely. Time to switch places.” May 28, 2020 (170)
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